About The Rich Coast Project

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to build a platform for the collection and dissemination of historical information relating to the identity and history of the area’s inhabitants and to improve access to the legal information necessary for securing local rights to property and natural resources.

OUR VISION

Our vision is to create a replicable model of community-based human rights advocacy that uses storytelling and digital archiving to foster community resilience, empower citizen engagement, and increase access to information so that local communities may have a meaningful stake in their history and their future.

WHY WE EXIST

WE BELIEVE RESIDENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTECT THEIR HISTORY AND LANDS FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.

Our work is justified by the need to:

Confront a lack of access to information

React to an urgent threat of knowledge loss

Humanize issues related to tenure insecurity and sustainable development

Respond to an increase of poverty and inequality

Recognize the legal invisibility of a particularly vulnerable group within the community

WHO WE SERVE

The Rich Coast Project serves the coastal communities of southern Caribbean Costa Rica between Cahuita and Manzanillo. This region is inhabited by the descendants of Afro-Caribbean settlers, as well as indigenous Bribri and Cabecar tribes and multiethnic mix of new and long-term migrants from all over the world.